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From: Justaskme on 4 Mar 2010 18:59



Microsoft CEO sounds alarm over Google's 'unfair advantage' March 3, 2010 .

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Photo: AFP


Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer intends to keep the regulatory heat on Google as
his company strives to lessen its rival's dominance of internet search.

In an appearance at a search engine conference, Ballmer said Microsoft
believes Google has done things to gain an unfair advantage in the
internet's lucrative search advertising market. He didn't specify the
alleged misconduct.

"We are expressing some of the issues and frustrations we see" with
antitrust regulators, Ballmer said. "Sometimes (it's) unsolicited, sometimes
because we have been asked."

Google declined to comment. But it has said its actions are aimed at
providing better experiences for web surfers and advertisers.

Yahoo, which is about to team up with Microsoft in search, seems less
inclined to get regulators involved as the two companies gang up on Google.

"I am actually not interested in government intervention in anything," Yahoo
CEO Carol Bartz told reporters during a lunch to celebrate the company's
15th anniversary. "I think for the most part markets work. I don't wish
antitrust on anyone."

Microsoft already has helped convince U.S. regulators that Google would
break antitrust laws in two proposed deals: a search advertising partnership
with Yahoo that was scrapped in 2008 and a digital books settlement that
still needs federal court approval. Yahoo also lobbied regulators to oppose
the agreement that would give Google the electronic rights to millions of
hard-to-find books.

Ciao, an online shopping comparison service owned by Microsoft, has filed an
antitrust complaint against Google in Europe. Regulators there say they are
looking into those allegations and similar ones made by two other sites,
Foundem and ejustice.fr.

Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, has had its own troubles with
regulators. Its bundling of personal computer software triggered a court
dispute with the U.S. Justice Department that forced the company to change
the way it packages software with its Windows operating system. Microsoft
later tussled with EU regulators, too.

Since Microsoft's own antitrust showdown started in the late 1990s, more
people have been relying on their computers chiefly as a conduit to the
internet. The evolution has turned Google's internet gateway and other
online services into a major threat to Microsoft, which has tried to respond
by investing billions of dollars in search technology.

Microsoft has made little headway. Even with some progress since unveiling
an upgraded search engine called Bing nine months ago, Microsoft remains a
distant third in the U.S. search market.

Ballmer is counting on Microsoft's 10-year search partnership with No. 2
Yahoo to help close the gap. Regulators cited Google's 65 per cent share of
the U.S. search market as one of the reasons for allowing Microsoft and
Yahoo to work together.

When the alliance kicks in late this year, Microsoft will start processing
search requests on Yahoo's website and pay most of the ad revenue to its new
partner. As Microsoft fields more search requests, Ballmer expects the
company to collect more data that it could analyse and use to help improve
search results. That, in turn, could help the company lure away Google
users.

"There is an advantage to having the power of two, as opposed to the power
of one," Ballmer told the crowd at the Search Marketing Expo.

When asked whether he thought Microsoft would overtake Google in internet
search, Ballmer indicated it probably will be a long time before there's a
changing of the guard.

"I don't know how old I will be when that will happen," said Ballmer, 53.

As part of its efforts to challenge Google, Microsoft has sought help from
Twitter and Facebook - two popular services for sharing information and
photographs.

Microsoft, like Google and Yahoo, pays an undisclosed sum for better access
to Twitter's index of short messages. In a bigger partnership, Microsoft
spent $US240 million for a 1.6 per cent stake in Facebook and processes
search requests on that site.

Responding to questions, Ballmer played down the possibility of Microsoft
buying Twitter or Facebook, which are both privately held.

AP


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